Author of the week: Russell Banks

last updated 8 January 2015

Russell Banks doesn’t put much stock in the future of the American family, said Carole Burns in The Washington Post. A child of divorce who’s been divorced three times, the 73-year-old novelist recently completed a collection of short stories in which virtually every character is struggling to keep blood ties intact. “One thing that has struck me through the years is the incredible fragility of family,” he says. Despite our “incredible, powerful” need for it, family life is difficult to sustain over time. “It’s not reinforced by the rest of society very heartily,” Banks says, “and it’s not reinforced by the economy. It’s under siege.” The new book is called A Permanent Member of the Family, but, “obviously, the title was ironic,” he says. “In a sense, there is no such thing as a permanent member of the family.”

Bleak as his diagnosis may be, Banks typically highlights the resilience of his characters, said Royal Young in Interview. “You have to admire the human spirit and the way it pushes on regardless,” he says. Neither fame nor professional affirmation brings satisfaction to the people in the new book, and the more primal need for connection is never sated for good. “There’s something unknowable about other human beings, which is a frightening and sad idea,” he says. “But it is confirmed by my experience. I’ve spent my lifetime in close, intimate relationships with family and friends and still have felt that no matter how close one gets that there is still a mystery beyond what we can know. ‘We all die alone’ is another way of saying it.”